The Difference Between SEO and Content Marketing

Like with the answer to most questions, it all depends on who you ask. Some people treat SEO and content marketing like synonyms. Others might say that content marketing makes SEO totally irrelevant, or that content marketing doesn’t matter if you have excellent SEO. The truth is somewhere in a gray area.

SEO and content marketing are both great things. They both serve similar purposes, but they’re different enough to be needed for completely separate reasons. They’re co-equal partners that fulfill two completely different jobs to create two perfect products: traffic to your website and marketing success.

The Simple Definition of SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. On the surface, that might seem like something routine that only needs to be done once. In reality, it’s an ongoing process that you’ll never stop doing if you need your website to stay busy.

The purpose of SEO is to keep your website relevant to search engines and to establish yourself as an authority site. Links, content and keywords tell a search engine that your site is the one people are looking for. You satisfy the search engine’s criteria better than your competitor does, and the search engine helps you receive the traffic you want.

The Simple Definition of Content Marketing

Content marketing is a process in which perfectly great stuff that people want is given to them for free. It can be anything as long as it’s useful. A long blog post that helps people solve something perplexing, a video that makes them laugh hysterically, or an infographic that makes a complicated situation very simple are all great examples of valuable content.

These pieces of content are like hooks full of delicious bait. You get people on the hook, and you’re reeling in exactly who you want to reel in. In the process, you’re exposing them to your branding, developing a relationship with them, and introducing them to whatever you’re selling. You might also be encouraging them to share your content and spread it further with likeminded people, helping your message resonate even further with minimal effort.

What SEO and Content Marketing Have in Common

SEO and content marketing do have something significant in common. When you boil them down to a reduction, they’re both ways to help you dominate your own small corner of the internet. They’re designed to help people find you, albeit in different ways.

They play together quite nicely. Incorporating the keywords you need to rank in a particular search into your content will make it work double duty. If each piece of content is posted as a separate page, it’s a new opportunity for a search engine to index you. If people really like your content, you’ll get a little bit of clout from it. It boosts the appearance of your authority and makes your website appear increasingly more useful.

How SEO and Content Marketing Differ

Simply put, SEO satisfies algorithms and content marketing satisfies people. You need the search engines to show you to people, and you need people to be happy with what they find when they get there. SEO won’t necessarily make them happy. The use of keywords alone will not add value – generic text that mentions keywords in a relevant context isn’t necessarily enhancing their lives. Great content will – especially if the keyword they searched for is part of an engaging experience that solves a need for them.

Some aspects of SEO have absolutely nothing to do with keywords or content. Google considers a mobile optimized website to be important by SEO standards, and this is completely invisible in your website text. Links to your website also factor into your overall SEO score, and most people find no value in a link alone.

Creating Perfect Synergy

Ideally, you want your SEO and content marketing efforts to be magnetic. They need to snap together securely. If you want your website to thrive, you shouldn’t attempt one without the other. Content marketing becomes a vehicle for the written aspects of SEO (those involving keywords) and every page of content you write is a new SEO opportunity.

You should keep both in your mind simultaneously and weigh them at equal importance. You can create inbound links to useful pieces of content if enough other people or websites decide to share that content based on the value if provides, and this is an instance in which both concepts play together perfectly. Keep pairing them up, and watch the traffic roll in.

Need Some Help?

If you’re too busy running your successful website, we can handle the SEO and content marketing on your behalf. Let us find out what you need and research the value your visitors want. We’ll compile a strategy tailored to your future and help you achieve your goals.

To echo the comments of the previous reviewers, it is absolutely critical to have a strong website hosting service upon which to build your website. I used to buy hosting for my clients and then have to add another job title to my already long list when my clients needed support or something was broken on the servers. Not only do I not need to worry about figuring out what platforms are fast, reliable and secure, all support issues go direct to Salterra which allows me to focus on other tasks/Terry and his team know how to manage and resolve your hosting needs.Now we move on to website development. It's obvious they have been doing this for several years and know what they're doing. With strong SOPs in place, their work is delivered to a high quality and on time.I don't want too many people to find out about Salterra because their prices are very reasonable, maybe too low, especially for the value that's provided.Many companies can build a website and then upsell you to an SEO package. Unfortunately, a lot of these supposedly highly rated SEO agencies do a very poor job, just doing the minimum, and ripping off the client as a result. Search Engine Optimization is a highly technical set of skills. If you want to beat your competition in the search engine results, you must have your on page and off page SEO done with a proven method that gets results.I've had the pleasure of talking directly with Terry and it's obvious he has a skill set above and beyond what you would normally find in an SEO agency. I have learned a lot from him over the years.So bottom line is, please don't use them because they get incredible results for a ridiculously low price. I want to keep them to myself. Please use another SEO agency because I know that when I use Salterra for my clients, they will outperform your clients in the same niche. Simon Cornelius 03/29/2019